California attorney general incumbent candidate Xavier Becerra addresses the crowd during a forum at the SoCal Gas Energy Resource Center in Downey on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The office of California attorney general has been held by Earl Warren, George Deukmejian and two men named Edmund G. Brown, all of whom became governor. It’s no secret that the job is a political springboard.

The current Governor Brown appointed then-Congressman Xavier Becerra as attorney general in January 2017 after Kamala Harris won a U.S. Senate seat and vacated the office. Becerra is now running for re-election to a full four-year term.

Having served in the House for 24 years, Becerra has deep connections in Washington, D.C., as well as in California. He has been the tip of the sword in the resistance against the Trump administration, filing more than 40 lawsuits challenging the federal government’s actions on such highly charged political issues as preserving the DACA program for young immigrants and defending California’s sanctuary state law.Becerra says he is defending “California values” against the federal government’s overreach, and the majority of the state’s voters, who overwhelmingly chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, would likely agree.

Becerra’s challenger is Steven Bailey, a former criminal defense attorney who was an El Dorado County Superior Court judge from 2009 to 2017, when he retired from the bench to run for attorney general. Bailey began his campaign while still an active judge and is currently facing ethics charges for that and other matters. His attorney says the charges are politically motivated.

Bailey is campaigning on a law-and-order platform and is critical of voter-approved initiatives that he says have resulted in an increase in crime, specifically Proposition 47, passed in 2014, which reduced many felonies to misdemeanors, and Proposition 57, approved in 2016, which eased parole requirements for felons convicted of crimes considered nonviolent. But it’s beyond the power of the attorney general to reverse these voter-approved measures.

We’re not comfortable with the ethics charges against Bailey, and unconvinced that his policy proposals are realistic.We’re endorsing Becerra despite concerns that his zeal for environmental regulation is at odds with our support for business and building in a state that desperately needs to be better at both.

The attorney general plays a leading role in the enforcement of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, also known as Proposition 65. Becerra has created a new Bureau of Environmental Justice aimed at protecting disadvantaged communities. This likely sets up a fight with major business groups, which have long contended that the ever-tightening regulations and requirements under CEQA, Prop. 65 and CARB are destroying jobs in California.

There is an inherent conflict between increasingly strict environmental regulation and the need for more affordable housing and economic development. For example, thousands of high-paying jobs in the logistics industry could vanish with one new regulation that limits the number of trucks allowed at a warehouse facility.

With his experience, Becerra could take the lead in working with environmental agencies to find a balance that truly protects the public while also making it easier for business to prosper in the Golden State. We hope he will do just that.

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